The present invention generally relates to aircraft, and more particularly relates to flight control systems, and even more particularly relates to methods and systems for implementing a motion-resisting load on a stick control on an aircraft.
In recent years, more and more aircraft are provided with side stick controllers instead of the traditional yoke and wheel arrangement. These side stick controllers are even more common in aircraft which employ a fly-by-wire system. It is common to have multiple side sticks in the cockpit. Typically, these side sticks provide some resistance to the pilot""s manipulation of the stick. In some implementations, spring loads, which are arranged in orthogonal directions, are used to provide a resistance to the pilot""s manipulation of or other motion of the side stick. Other implementations have used electric motors with drive servos to supply the resistance to motion of the side stick. Due to the need for extremely high integrity of flight control systems, these electric motors are usually provided in double or triple redundant arrangements.
While these double and triple redundant side stick loads have been used extensively in the past, they do have some drawbacks. First of all, the cost of providing this redundancy is often prohibitive, especially for smaller general aviation aircraft. The double and triple redundant systems also consume valuable space in and provide additional weight to a cockpit.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and systems for providing side stick motion resisting loads in an efficient manner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for providing a load for resisting motion of a side stick controller in an efficient manner.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize an electric motor deployed to augment resistive load forces provided by a spring load.
It is another feature of the present invention to include a plurality of motion-resisting load springs disposed about a side stick.
It is an advantage of the present invention to achieve an electrically variable load without a need for redundant electric motors.
The present invention is an apparatus and method for providing a variable load to resist motion of a side stick, designed to satisfy the aforementioned needs, provide the previously stated objects, include the above-listed features, and achieve the already articulated advantages. The present invention is carried out in a xe2x80x9cwasted space-less and wasted weight-lessxe2x80x9d manner in a sense that the wasted space consumed and the wasted weight incurred by multiple redundant electric motors for providing a motion-resisting load on a side stick, have been greatly reduced.
Accordingly, the present invention is a system and method including a side stick controller with a spring load for providing primary resistance to motion of the side stick and an electric motor configured to augment the primary resistive forces provided by the spring load.